Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Greatest Junior Player Ever? The debate gets tougher.

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I have several kids from my area that rock.

Melina K. - Junior
Pablo K. - Senior
Nick D. - Junior (Moving Up)
Dante M. - Junior

A couple years ago, back when Pablo was a Junior, he won several City Championships. A couple in Juniors, then he wanted to play up, so he won Seniors a couple times, and took a second in Masters. Now if that is not a good player at the time, I don't know what is.

Hopefully Weedler will come in to this topic and list all of Tristan's winnings through the years. He has a lot of sparkly things on the shelves.
 
Let's just keep it to Nationals and Worlds accomplishments, as Regionals and the like are not quite as subjective of a player's talent in my mind.

I prefer to see how the big fish did in the Big Pond.

If you want to highlight Tristen in a separate thread, with an "all about" tribute to our National Champion, I really would like to see it.

Vince
 
Sorry Tristan, but I will have to go with Hiroki! 1st and 2nd at Worlds is AMAZING! Nats is good, but Worlds is taking to a whole new level (I would know, lol). You are a great player Tristan, and I have played against you, but you are #2! (And Hiroki wears a NY Yankess Cap! Teehee...)
 
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I think there are two things we can be judging here, the accomplishments of the player, and the skill of the player when he/she was at his/her best in Juniors. The second is more subjective, but the two aren't necesarily the same thing.

1st and 2nd at worlds in addition to whatever japanese titles he may have puts Hiroki at #1 as far as accomplishments go. Tristan is #2 and Curran a close #3, and Jun has plenty of time to surpass them all given the fact he's only 8(?).

As far as player skill, I'd have to put Tristan at #1 (biased as I may be). Picking up a deck the day before worlds and going on to win the whole event takes some serious skill. Not just knowledge of the game, but clear-headedness and ability to adapt that is a much more common trait in high level seniors and masters players .than it is in Juniors. Nothing phases this kid(Fun fact: Tristan did not lose a single best-of-three game in all his Sunday matches).
 
Weedler said:
I think there are two things we can be judging here, the accomplishments of the player, and the skill of the player when he/she was at his/her best in Juniors. The second is more subjective, but the two aren't necesarily the same thing.

1st and 2nd at worlds in addition to whatever japanese titles he may have puts Hiroki at #1 as far as accomplishments go. Tristan is #2 and Curran a close #3, and Jun has plenty of time to surpass them all given the fact he's only 8(?).

As far as player skill, I'd have to put Tristan at #1 (biased as I may be). Picking up a deck the day before worlds and going on to win the whole event takes some serious skill. Not just knowledge of the game, but clear-headedness and ability to adapt that is a much more common trait in high level seniors and masters players
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yeah... in all the games I watched, i never saw Tristan make a misplay..


and i agree, it's hard to say who's the best player, as there are many aspects to decide.


for example, Ness is definitely a great player... 2 time champ, and he knows how to make good deck choices

as far as playing skill goes, i've never seen anyone top Yamato. I've never seen that guy misplay, and I have seen other top players make misplays before. but not that guy..

then theirs also deck building skill etc...
(Chuck's good at this, Eric Craigs good at this etc..)


accomplishments don't necessarilly matter-of-fact decide who is the absolute best player.
they do mean a lot, but you can never declair for certain who is really the best....
If that were true, that would mean Ness is at least twice as good as Chuck since he won worlds twice...
and I'm sure that Ness himself wouldn't compare himself to Chuck like that
 
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I would say Yano. He moved up to Seniors this year, and note that he did better than Curran did when he moved up to Seniors (Top16, I believe?).

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

ChicoBlanco said:
yeah... in all the games I watched, i never saw Tristan make a misplay..


and i agree, it's hard to say who's the best player, as there are many aspects to decide.


for example, Ness is definitely a great player... 2 time champ, and he knows how to make good deck choices

as far as playing skill goes, i've never seen anyone top Yamato. I've never seen that guy misplay, and I have seen other top players make misplays before. but not that guy..

then theirs also deck building skill etc...
(Chuck's good at this, Eric Craigs good at this etc..)


accomplishments don't necessarilly matter-of-fact decide who is the absolute best player.
they do mean a lot, but you can never declair for certain who is really the best....
If that were true, that would mean Ness is at least twice as good as Chuck since he won worlds twice...
and I'm sure that Ness himself wouldn't compare himself to Chuck like that
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Actually, while not a misplay, I saw Yamato use Teleportation while a Cess. Crystal was attached to the opponent's active during a game against Orion in the open gaming room after his T32 loss... Which was interesting
 
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I'll have to say Hiroki Yano, He basiclly broke the world record for having so many titles. But James Laung from my area is close to breaking Yano's record.
 
Hiroki Yano place 2nd with a red face paint deck also in the 2007 World Championships.
The deck he used was using only Scior Ex and scyther from EX Unseen Forces.
It was the Secret Deck in japan which was also used by Akimura (Placed 4th in worlds 2007).
This deck was fast which Yamato countered it by adding a 1-1 line of infernape in his
Speed empoleon Deck.

Overall My vote goes to Yano as his accomplishments were great :smile:
 
EeveeLover said:
I have several kids from my area that rock.

Melina K. - Junior
Pablo K. - Senior
Nick D. - Junior (Moving Up)
Dante M. - Junior

A couple years ago, back when Pablo was a Junior, he won several City Championships. A couple in Juniors, then he wanted to play up, so he won Seniors a couple times, and took a second in Masters. Now if that is not a good player at the time, I don't know what is.

Hopefully Weedler will come in to this topic and list all of Tristan's winnings through the years. He has a lot of sparkly things on the shelves.
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What about Kevin?? You have Dante but not Kevin??

I mainly think Tristan is one of the best players I have ever seen play this game and I've been playing for a while (11 years almost).. then again I wouldn't really know cause I have seen any other really amazing Junior players so yeah..
 
headsrcool said:
I was joking, I know some people from colorado and was scared of it. I was hanging out w/ Kevin most of the time. You know the feeling. I don't like playing against counter decks, besides he probably should have won. All the people watching said he was junk drawing. Sorry for the confusion.
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well thats what we were wondering ok you know kevin but christian didnt know you and I dont know you so when he told me after the match you can imagine how upset I would be as well as christian to get all that way and be capped on like that. Be glad he only had little experience with the deck or he would have scizor rushed the first game and prolly would not have had to blow up to SD the first game. Talk to him and if he's will to let it go then I will too.
 
Pikachews said:
Hiroki Yano place 2nd with a red face paint deck also in the 2007 World Championships.
The deck he used was using only Scior Ex and scyther from EX Unseen Forces.
It was the Secret Deck in japan which was also used by Akimura (Placed 4th in worlds 2007).
This deck was fast which Yamato countered it by adding a 1-1 line of infernape in his
Speed empoleon Deck.

Overall My vote goes to Yano as his accomplishments were great :smile:
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While maybe not a common deck in the american metagame, Scizor ex is far from a rogue deck. It was one of the most played decks in Japan for a number of years, very much an archetype in Hiroki's home country.

Why would Yamato tech to beat a rogue? He knew Scizor ex was a viable deck for 07 Worlds now that LBS was out of the format, and that any japanese players who would use Scizor would hurt his Empoleon's chances of winning (although the ape tech helped with more than just scizor).
 
My vote to Tristan.
It's too strong.
He won Worlds with a nice rogue deck and destroyed all his opponent.
 
Out of my head Arnoud took while in Juniors.
3rd (2004) 2nd (2005) 1st (2007)at our Nationals
3rd Worlds 2006 (lost to Hiroki in T4)
5th Worlds 2007 (lost to Jun, going undefeated until T8)
 
Jun Hasabe has got to be in the T4 at least. He won Worlds while he was SEVEN years old! Not to mention he got T8 this year, when he was 8 years old. He's got at least 2 more years in Juniors, perhaps even 3 (don't know when he turns 9).

While Tristan's record is amazing, I have to give my vote to Hiroki Yano. First and second places at Worlds in consequtive years is just amazing. And he also made T32 (maybe T16?) in Seniors this year, if I'm not mistaken.
 
For me, it's gotta be Curran. First at the two biggest events in the world in the same year is too good. Plus, he's a very cool kid. The other two, I haven't met, but I'd give second to Tristan because of his numbers, and third to Hiroki, I guess.
 
Best

To my knowledge no players other than Curran and Jeremy in the history of Pokemon have won both US Nationals, and the World Chapionships (indisputably the hardest tournaments) in the same year. Tristan came close this year, but unfortunately 2nd is not 1st. Also, it must be considered that Curran made T-4 at Nats the year before winning.

So the comparison goes:
Tristan - Nats: 1st, 2nd - Worlds: 1st, Miss cut
Curran - Nats 1st, T-4 - Worlds 1st, T-16

However I think the calendar-year grand-slam (regionals, states too) puts Curran over the top.

Hiroki has a strong chance to surpass both of these players eventually by doing well at next year's worlds.
 
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SuperWooper said:
For me, it's gotta be Curran. First at the two biggest events in the world in the same year is too good. Plus, he's a very cool kid. The other two, I haven't met, but I'd give second to Tristan because of his numbers, and third to Hiroki, I guess.
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Ya i totally agree. Also being there for Curran's win kind of puts me in his camp. He plays close to my area at least for our regionals and some of our bigger toruneys so I have seen him place well all year long for many years.
 
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